The IPO market has woken up from its more than three-year slumber after the success of several new issues including Circle and CoreWeave. But while many bankers and venture capital executives are anticipating a next wave of high-profile deals in the fall, there is still a risk that tariffs and geo-political strife could derail the reinvigorated IPO climate.
More companies have gone public this year than in any time since 2021, which itself was a high mark for new issues. So far in 2025, 95 companies have listed on U.S. exchanges, raising $15.6 billion as of June 18, according to data from Dealogic. This is up 30% from last year at this time and nearly double the number of companies that listed in 2022 and 2023.
While this is the best season for IPOs in recent memory, it’s not on the level of the go-go days of 2021 when droves of companies, most of them unprofitable, sought to go public. “We are not back to 2021 levels where everyone was piling in,” said Matt Kennedy, senior IPO strategist at Renaissance Capital, a provider of pre-IPO research that manages two IPO-focused ETFs (NYSE: IPO, IPOS).
“The IPO market is back from the dead because the last three years were so awful. But I wouldn’t say it’s vibrant. I would say it’s still pretty selective,” said Brad Bernstein, managing partner at private equity firm FTV Capital.
Many companies are waiting to go public. About 200 companies have filed to list on the Nasdaq, up 13% from this time last year. “While market conditions remain dynamic, the pipeline remains robust as companies continue to prepare for public market debuts,” said Jeff Thomas, Nasdaq’s chief revenue officer and global head of listings.
This year’s class of IPOs has produced some clear winners. Crypto firm Circle delivered a breakout moment when its shares rose 168% in its June 5th debut. The stock continues to gain in the aftermarket, with shares up 677% from its $31 offer price. CoreWeave, an AI infrastructure company, has soared after a rough debut in March, with the stock gaining 359%, while drone developer AIRO is up 122% since listing on June 13. Some companies have seen more modest success like online broker eToro which has gained 14% and Chime, the well-known neobank, which has risen by 9.2% since its listing.
David Mort, a general partner of venture firm Propel Venture Partners, said the success of IPOs from Chime, Circle and eToro—each were oversubscribed—is giving boards confidence. “We expect more CEOs to pick up the phone after watching these new listings,” Mort said.
Hot IPOs in July?
Hopes are high that IPOs will continue their rapid ascent during the second half of 2025. David Roos, a partner with venture firm Core Innovation Capital, cautioned that macroeconomic issues like a possible war with Iran and tariffs could upend this year’s IPO market. Market volatility is typically bad for IPOs because it often makes investors more hesitant to participate in new issues. (On June 21, the ongoing conflict in the Middle East escalated when the U.S. bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities.)
One potential source of volatility is the ongoing fallout from the sweeping tariff policy announced by President Donald Trump in April, which triggered a sharp decline in the U.S. stock market. The market instability and economic uncertainty caused by the tariffs spurred several companies, including specialty lender Klarna, ticketing platform StubHub and Chime to put their deals on pause. Chime eventually went forward with its IPO, but Klarna and StubHub have yet to reschedule. Klarna and StubHub declined to comment.
Many of the tariffs planned by Trump have been on a 90-day pause, which is set to expire next month. “I’d expect more volatility in July,” Roos said.
“There is still a possibility that tariffs will bite back and cause the IPO market to slow down again,” said Renaissance’s Kennedy.
Summer is typically a slow time for IPOs with many bankers going on vacation. That’s not expected to change this year. If markets remain stable and there are no huge macro issues, companies will continue going public this summer. But most high-profile deals are expected to wait for the fall, which is usually the strongest time for new issues. Some deals may also push to 2026.
Earlier this year, Renaissance Capital had expected the IPO window to fully open by July, Kennedy said. Now the research firm anticipates moderate activity, like two to three deals a week, he said. “We won’t be very busy,” Kennedy said.
Marquee names that could list this fall include Klarna and StubHub. Some companies that have filed confidentially with the SEC, but have yet to make their regulatory filings public, include Figma, the design software unicorn; crypto exchanges Gemini and Bullish; and Medline, the Blackstone-backed medical supply company. Then there are perpetual IPO candidates like Stripe, Plaid, Revolut, Databricks, Discord and Canva, which could also list.
On the verge of breaking
Another big issue for this year’s crop of IPOs is aftermarket performance. During the IPO frenzy of 2021, 397 companies went public raising a record $142.4 billion. About 80% still remain below their IPO price. This bad performance helped drive investors away from new issues for several years. One company under pressure right now is Chime, which rose 37% in its debut but has fallen in several recent trading sessions. If Chime were to “break,” or drop below its $27 offer price, this could indicate a loss of investor sentiment and potentially impact other similar companies. Chime is currently trading at an estimated seven times revenue, but if these multiple drops to less than five times, then “you’re not going to see a lot of other consumer fintechs wanting to go public,” said Edwin Loredo, also a partner at Core Innovation. Chime declined to comment.
There’s also the issue of so-called lockups that all recently public companies must face. When businesses go public, insiders, usually employees and early investors, are often restricted from selling their shares for a certain time, usually between 90 to 180 days. These insiders are free to sell once the lockup expires, typically causing the shares to drop or become more volatile.
Many of the companies that listed recently, including Circle, Chime and CoreWeave, have managed to trade above their offer price but it remains to be seen if they can maintain this when their lockups terminate. CoreWeave has a 180-day lockup that expires in September, while Chime’s and Circle’s both end in December. “The real test [for] Chime and Circle is how these stocks trade after the lock up is over. If the stocks are below the IPO price 200 days from now, that is not a good sign. If they trade above the IPO price as the volume of sellers picks up, that will be a very positive sign,” said FTV’s Bernstein.
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